Commun ty Matters Fort Scott Presbyterian Village
Coming up in Community Matters:
We will be thinking about Thanksgiving in an upcoming issue of Community Matters. Does your family have a special recipe that is made each Thanksgiving dinner, one that it’s not Thanksgiving unless it’s on the table? What about a special Thanksgiving tradition? Share your Thanksgiving memories by contacting Ginger Nance, and your memories, traditions or recipe may be selected for an upcoming issue of Community Matters.
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September 2015
The beauty of being a beautician
If you ask most women, they’ll tell you that nobody knows them quite like their beautician. This professional not only cuts and styles their hair on a regular basis, but they are often a therapist and confidant. Alice Tripp, who’s lived at Presbyterian Village a little more than a year now, was a beautician for 43 years. “I had a variety of customers, and I loved every one of them. I had to work with lots of personalities.You’re working directly on them, and not around them. I always knew all the gossip. I was like a therapist in many ways. I did a lot of listening. I tried to support them and help if I could. Otherwise, you try to forget what you’ve heard. It would get to you if you lingered on it too much,” said Alice. Alice could relate to many trials her clients were going through. After all, it was hardship that led her to beauty school in the first place. “My daddy passed away suddenly when he was just 51. My mother was 50, and my little sister was 15 and still had to finish high school. My mother only had Social Security to depend on and it wasn’t much. I decided if got my beautician’s license, it would help us all,” said Alice. “I ended up loving it and would do it all over again. I had my own shop downtown by the theatre for eight years, then out on the south end of town for a while. Finally, I found a little building that was an old coal mining office, we moved it from out in the country into town and I did business there,” said Alice. Alice enjoys her life at Presbyterian Village, especially the socialization. She still misses certain aspects of her trade, though. “The little ones were as much fun as anything. If I tried around three times and couldn’t make it work with the mother sitting in there, I would ask the mother to go to Wal-Mart and shop around. As soon as the mother would leave, the kids would straighten up, be friendly, and smile. It was the darndest thing.”